Deadly Intent

Starred review from May 25, 2009
At the start of La Plante's excellent fourth crime drama to feature London Det. Insp. Anna Travis (after 2008's Clean Cut
), wanted drug kingpin Alexander Fitzpatrick returns home to England after plastic surgery in Mexico, desperate to collect funds that Julia Kendal, his recently married ex-partner in the drug smuggling business, has squirreled away. When Julia's new husband, a former cop who was also acting as her bodyguard, is shot to death at a seedy Chalk Farm drug squat, Anna discovers an unexpected link between Julia and Anthony Collingwood, a Fitzpatrick alias. More bodies of Fitzpatrick's former associates pile up, including some poisoned with an overdose of Fentanyl, an illegal opiate with which Fitzpatrick plans to flood the U.K. market. Supt. Jimmy Langton, Anna's tetchy ex-lover and former superior, who's dismayed to notice she's dangerously attracted to a professor connected to the elusive Fitzpatrick, retains his enigmatic appeal.

June 1, 2009
The killing of an ex-cop in a drug squat sends DI Anna Travis searching for the most wanted dealer in England.

Frank Brandon had led quite a life since his days on the Job. He was working as a chauffeur for midlevel drug supplier Donny Petrozzo when he caught the eye of wealthy, beautiful Julia Kendal, who'd married him and evidently made him a happy man. So what was he doing in the flat in squalid Warren Estate where he was shot dead? Anna's preliminary inquiries convince her that his death involves Julia's shadowy former partner Anthony Collingwood, n Alexander Fitzpatrick, who dropped out of sight years ago after leaving her with two children and a sizable fortune. But DCI Carol Cunningham, head of Anna's Murder Squad, is far from convinced. So Anna begins to ask questions on her own, with eminently predictable results: enough progress to keep the pot simmering, but not enough to lead to her quarry or mollify her superiors, including her ex-lover DCS James Langton (Clean Cut, 2007, etc.). Behind the series of violent deaths that propel the investigation, Anna sees a disturbing pattern: Fitzpatrick's scheme to flood the U.K. with Fentanyl, a painkiller as deadly as it is powerful.

The criminal conspiracy is menacing, even monstrous, but no more interesting than the authentically tedious interrogations.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from June 1, 2009
La Plantes latest Anna Travis novel grabs the readers attention on page one and keeps it tillthe electrifying conclusion. In between, theres masterful writing, a superbly crafted plot, nail-biting suspense, and well-informed descriptions of daily life in a British cop shop. DI Anna Travis is still smarting over the end of her love affair with Inspector James Langton, so when shes assigned to a murder case at a drug squat, where one of the victims is a former cop, shes relieved to focus on something besides her broken heart. Her new boss, DCI Carol Cunningham, however, is notorious for being demanding, and Anna knows shell need to rein in her tendency to operate as a one-woman crime squad. But despite her good intentions, she cant help using her famous intuition, which leads her to the murder victims wife, who just happens to be the former lover of notorious drug dealer Alexander Fitzpatrick. More bodies pile up, and its clear the police have made little progressexcept for Anna, whose one-woman investigation is beginning to produce some frightening and unexpected results. Two thumbs up for another surefire winner from the always exhilarating and inventive La Plante, best known for her scriptwriting stint on Prime Suspect.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)